Dixon’s Hudson methodical on the mat, just don't make him mad

Thursday

Jan 17, 2013 at 12:01 AM

DIXON — Before Tyler Hudson makes a move on the mat, the Dixon junior has worked it out in his mind, calculating the confidence he has of success vs. the possibility the maneuver might not only fail but leave him vulnerable.

Rick Scoppe-Sports Editor/The Daily News

DIXON — Before Tyler Hudson makes a move on the mat, the Dixon junior has worked it out in his mind, calculating the confidence he has of success vs. the possibility the maneuver might not only fail but leave him vulnerable.

It’s as if wrestling is a chess match for Hudson, whose cerebral approach includes thinking several moves ahead with his ultimate goal the sport’s version of checkmate, which is, of course, a pin.

“I think about if I’m going to make this move, then this is going to happen and I can go into this move,” Hudson said during practice this week. “I think about it before I do it. I don’t just do it and hope for the best.”

“He goes out there with a plan and he works that plan,” Tomlinson said. “You see that as he’s wrestling. You can see him thinking. He’s thinking of his next move and he’s working what he wants to work. Even if he’s down, he’s working a plan.”

While Hudson acknowledges that means he’s not into taking too many risks — “The more risks, the more chances you have of losing,” he said — his mat mastery is evident by his record (24-3) and that he claimed his second straight Onslow County Cup championship this past weekend.

And don’t think that’s not a big deal.

“It is,” he said. “It’s bragging rights to me. I can say I’m the best in the county at (197). It’s important. I don’t want to lose.”

It is also an intermediate step toward his ultimate goal, which isn’t just to win the Coastal Plains 1-A Conference title or the 1-A East Regionals but to bring home a state title. A year ago Hudson went 0-2 at states at heavyweight.

“My goal,” he said simply, “is to win states this year.”

What will that take?

“I need to get in better shape,” Hudson said. “When you go up there it comes down to one or two points. That’s going to count, how good of shape you’re in.”

Hudson said he learned a lot in his first trip to the Greensboro Coliseum, where a flood of fans greet wrestlers as well as a floor full of mats and the threat of an arena of anxiety. It can be a bit unnerving for a wrestler making his first trip to the state championships.

“I remember there was a lot of people there, and there were like 12 mats on the ground. It’s big,” Hudson said matter-of-factly. “It was overwhelming, but I wasn’t scared. It’s just another wrestling match.”

That, Tomlinson said, is in keeping with Hudson’s demeanor, at least off the mat.

“I actually have Tyler in class. He is very quiet and very docile,” Tomlinson said. “He does not necessarily relish in the limelight. He loves to win. But he does it very quietly.”

Unless, that is, you make him mad.

“I would say probably half the time something happens in the match and he gets irritated,” Tomlinson said. “In his case when he gets irritated it actually helps him. He doesn’t lose focus. He doesn’t lose control. He just actually gets more aggressive.”

So what gets Hudson riled up?

“Kind of like I can’t turn them because they’re just sitting there, it just makes me mad if they’re trying to stall. That’s not wrestling. That’s just sitting there,” Hudson said. “If they make me mad during a match, they’re going to get it.”

Hudson has been getting mad (and even) on the wrestling mat since falling in love with the grueling sport at New Bridge Middle School.

“It’s just something about wrestling,” he said. “Just the fact that it’s just me. I don’t have to rely on anybody else. I just like that.”

And while he also plays on both sides of the line in football and throws the shot and discus in track for the Bulldogs, wrestling is his favorite sport. Along with it being a one-on-one sport, he said it is just a tougher sport than football.

Just don’t ask him about wrestling practice.

“Yeah, practice sucks,” he said.

But it is also a means to an end, and this year’s end Hudson hopes will be a state championship at 197 pounds, not 222 or heavyweight, where he’s also wrestled. Hudson said he weighed about 235 pounds during football season and dropped some pounds to wrestle at 220 earlier this season. Since then, he’s gotten even lighter on the scales, with the goal of being able to compete in the 197-pound class.

“I wrestled heavyweight last year, but the most I ever weighed last year was like 215. So I was already in the 220 weight class,” Hudson said. “The beginning of this year I started weighing 205, so that’s only 10 pounds to cut.

“So I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to go to 195.’ When I got there I don’t have to wrestle as heavy people. It’s a lot more fair to me at least.”

So what was his secret to reducing his weight? Jenny Craig? Weight Watchers? Nope. His diet plan was simplicity itself.

“I just didn’t eat as much,” Hudson said.

But after wrestling is over and Hudson begins preparations for his final football season the Tyler Trim Down will be shelved and he’ll bulk back up.